Secondbrooks

Oh boy, don't get me started on dismounted TOW! Served in Finland where that was the main method of using it.
We had 7 guys hauling the whole system (TOW2 with thermals) + couple missiles. With highly drilled squad (yes squad not team) it took 3 minutes to set it up. Same amount to disassemble. Man, i've spent my  years in reserves (20 years now) trying to think how to move it around faster, sleds or something. Maybe even carry it assembled and hope we don't break anything vital. Because if we'd end up into sights of opponent while in firing positions we are not moving anywhere and are going to be practically ground meat. Whole dis-/assembly process is such a hassle with guys running here and there while delivering/retriveing their pieces from firing position and getting into their close defense positions.
There were guys issued with Russian AT-4, those were whole another beast on this aspect. 3 man teams could operate them and if ****e hit the fan they could just pick it up and run, or hobble. No even close to similar hassle we had to have. I never had change to work with them, but our officers were kinda envious of how fast they were to move around.
Did complain about this with Shock Force once Marine pack was released and dismounted TOW was introduced, and Steve had it changed. I think they made it 3 and 7 minutes... It became practically stationary weapon system at that point.
We didn't have but one missile per squad to fire and it was reserved for gunner (i was squad leader) so i can't much talk about it's reliability or how it was to fire, but at times you heard that someone had mechanical with missile.
Yes, powerlines and large bodies of water are an issue, causing wires to short circuit. Also sun (if firing directly at sun). I don't see how undergrowth should be an systemic issue, wire is inside missile unwinding itself as missile flies along so if everything goes along well there should not be problem. But it's 20 years so maybe i've forgot something.

Oh boy, don't get me started on dismounted TOW! Served in Finland where that was the main method of using it.
We had 7 guys hauling the whole system (TOW2 with thermals) + couple missiles. With highly drilled squad (yes squad not team) it took 3 minutes to set it up. Same amount to disassemble. Man, i've spent my  years in reserves (20 years now) trying to think how to move it around faster, sleds or something. Maybe even carry it assembled and hope we don't break anything vital. Because if we'd end up into sights of opponent while in firing positions we are not moving anywhere and are going to be practically ground meat. Whole dis-/assembly process is such a hassle with guys running here and there while delivering/retriveing their pieces from firing position and getting into their close defense positions.
There were guys issued with Russian AT-4, those were whole another beast on this aspect. 3 man teams could operate them and if ****e hit the fan they could just pick it up and run, or hobble. No even close to similar hassle we had to have. I never had change to work with them, but our officers were kinda envious of how fast they were to move around.
Did complain about this with Shock Force once Marine pack was released and dismounted TOW was introduced, and Steve had it changed. I think they made it 3 and 7 minutes... It became practically stationary weapon system at that point.
We didn't have but one missile per squad to fire and it was reserved for gunner (i was squad leader) so i can't much talk about it's reliability or how it was to fire, but at times you heard that someone had mechanical with missile.
Yes, powerlines and large bodies of water are an issue, causing wires to short circuit. Also sun (if firing directly at sun). I don't see how undergrowth should be an systemic issue, wire is inside missile unwinding itself as missile flies along so if everything goes along well there should not be problem. But it's 20 years so maybe i've forgot something.

Oh boy, don't get me started on dismounted TOW! Served in Finland where that was the main method of using it.
We had 7 guys hauling the whole system (TOW2 with thermals) + couple missiles. With highly drilled squad (yes squad not team) it took 3 minutes to set it up. Same amount to disassemble. Man, i've spent my  years in reserves (20 years now) trying to think how to move it around faster, sleds or something. Maybe even carry it assembled and hope we don't break anything vital. Because if we'd end up into sights of opponent while in firing positions we are not moving anywhere and are going to be practically ground meat. Whole dis-/assembly process is such a hassle with guys running here and there while delivering/retriveing their pieces from firing position and getting into their close defense positions.
There were guys issued with Russian AT-4, those were whole another beast on this aspect. 3 man teams could operate them and if ****e hit the fan they could just pick it up and run, or hobble. No even close to similar hassle we had to have. I never had change to work with them, but our officers were kinda envious of how fast they were to move around.
Did complain about this with Shock Force once Marine pack was released and dismounted TOW was introduced, and Steve had it changed. I think they made it 3 and 7 minutes... It became practically stationary weapon system at that point.
We didn't have but one missile per squad to fire and it was reserved for gunner (i was squad leader) so i can't much talk about it's reliability or how it was to fire, but at times you heard that someone had mechanical with missile.
Yes, powerlines and large bodies of water are an issue, causing wires to short circuit. Also sun (if firing directly at sun). I don't see how undergrowth should be an systemic issue, wire is inside missile unwinding itself as missile flies along so if everything goes along well there should not be problem. But it's 20 years so maybe i've forgot something.

Oh boy, don't get me started on dismounted TOW! Served in Finland where that was the main method of using it.
We had 7 guys hauling the whole system (TOW2 with thermals) + couple missiles. With highly drilled squad (yes squad not team) it took 3 minutes to set it up. Same amount to disassemble. Man, i've spent my  years in reserves (20 years now) trying to think how to move it around faster, sleds or something. Maybe even carry it assembled and hope we don't break anything vital. Because if we'd end up into sights of opponent while in firing positions we are not moving anywhere and are going to be practically ground meat. Whole dis-/assembly process is such a hassle with guys running here and there while delivering/retriveing their pieces from firing position and getting into their close defense positions.
There were guys issued with Russian AT-4, those were whole another beast on this aspect. 3 man teams could operate them and if ****e hit the fan they could just pick it up and run, or hobble. No even close to similar hassle we had to have. I never had change to work with them, but our officers were kinda envious of how fast they were to move around.
Did complain about this with Shock Force once Marine pack was released and dismounted TOW was introduced, and Steve had it changed. I think they made it 3 and 7 minutes... It became practically stationary weapon system at that point.
We didn't have but one missile per squad to fire and it was reserved for gunner (i was squad leader) so i can't much talk about it's reliability or how it was to fire, but at times you heard that someone had mechanical with missile.
Yes, powerlines and large bodies of water are an issue, causing wires to short circuit. Also sun (if firing directly at sun). I don't see how undergrowth should be an systemic issue, wire is inside missile unwinding itself as missile flies along so if everything goes along well there should not be problem. But it's 20 years so maybe i've forgot something.

Oh boy, don't get me started on dismounted TOW! Served in Finland where that was the main method of using it.
We had 7 guys hauling the whole system (TOW2 with thermals) + couple missiles. With highly drilled squad (yes squad not team) it took 3 minutes to set it up. Same amount to disassemble. Man, i've spent my  years in reserves (20 years now) trying to think how to move it around faster, sleds or something. Maybe even carry it assembled and hope we don't break anything vital. Because if we'd end up into sights of opponent while in firing positions we are not moving anywhere and are going to be practically ground meat. Whole dis-/assembly process is such a hassle with guys running here and there while delivering/retriveing their pieces from firing position and getting into their close defense positions.
There were guys issued with Russian AT-4, those were whole another beast on this aspect. 3 man teams could operate them and if ****e hit the fan they could just pick it up and run, or hobble. No even close to similar hassle we had to have. I never had change to work with them, but our officers were kinda envious of how fast they were to move around.
Did complain about this with Shock Force once Marine pack was released and dismounted TOW was introduced, and Steve had it changed. I think they made it 3 and 7 minutes... It became practically stationary weapon system at that point.
We didn't have but one missile per squad to fire and it was reserved for gunner (i was squad leader) so i can't much talk about it's reliability or how it was to fire, but at times you heard that someone had mechanical with missile.
Yes, powerlines and large bodies of water are an issue, causing wires to short circuit. Also sun (if firing directly at sun). I don't see how undergrowth should be an systemic issue, wire is inside missile unwinding itself as missile flies along so if everything goes along well there should not be problem. But it's 20 years so maybe i've forgot something.